Beloved philanthropist ‘led from the heart’
When she was 12 years old, Jeanne Fuller would play with her young friend and gaze across Britannia Bay at the sunset.
Seventy-five years later, on Dec. 17 as she lay dying in The Moorings, the Fuller family’s estate adjacent the Britannia Yacht Club, she stared across the same water at another sunset, with her children gathered around her. She was listening to a hymn set to her favourite poem, Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar, a laminated copy of which she carried in her purse.
She was just steps away from where she had played as a child.
Her son, Simon Fuller, principal of the Fuller Group of Companies, says he can still hardly believe it really happened.
“’Sunset and the evening star,’” he says, quoting the poem’s opening stanza, “and the sun was going down over Britannia Bay and this warm gold light was coming through the window. And mom opened her eyes for the first time in 10 days, and by the time the song was over, she was dead.”
Loving wife, devoted mother, philanthropist, patron of the arts, benefactor of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, socialite — it all describes Jeanne Fuller, whose life resembled a script from a Grace Kelly movie.
Jeanne Farrell MacDonald was born Aug. 27, 1930, and grew up in Sandy Hill. She was just 16 when she married the first time, briefly and unhappily (she was “stupid young” she later said).
But in 1954, she met an engaging war hero, Capt. Thomas G. Fuller, who was 22 years her senior. Nicknamed the Pirate of the Adriatic, Tom Fuller won the Distinguished Service Cross twice for his daring exploits as a Royal Canadian Navy torpedo boat captain during the Second World War. In civilian life, he was heir to the Fuller family’s storied construction history (his father was Canada’s Dominion Architect and his grandfather, also the Dominion Architect, had designed the Parliament Buildings.)
Together, Tom and Jeanne Fuller were a formidable power couple, whose contributions to the city can be seen in both the concrete and steel of Tom’s buildings and in the institutions they financially supported, such as the National Arts Centre and the Heart Institute.
“Mom took the rough edges off dad,” Simon said.
“He had the vision and the creativity and the confidence and the determination. But she led from the heart and with graciousness. The two of them were an awesome complement to the other.”
Jeanne had five children: William, Mark, Antony, Simon and Pamela, who died in infancy, as well as Thomas and Victoria from her husband’s first marriage.
Simon said his parent’s marriage was a true love story.
It began when Tom proposed as the couple waded knee deep into the rapids at Britannia.
“It was always very clear to everyone that her love of dad came before anyone, even her children. If you saw mom and how she loved her children, you wouldn’t think that was possible, but it was. ... Mom’s love for dad and her support for dad was the anchor for everything.”
Sailing was a constant in the family’s life, first on the squarerigged Black Jack and then the even larger vessel Fair Jeanne, which Tom Fuller designed and built himself at The Moorings. Tom and Jeanne sailed on the Fair Jeanne as far as the Adriatic Sea to Tom’s old wartime haunts. Tom Fuller died in 1994. “For mom, there was 23 years without dad and that was very hard for her,” Simon Fuller said.
“I guess, with the age difference, she knew going in that there were going to be a lot of lonely years at the end.”
Lonely, perhaps, but not inactive. The Fullers had been supporters of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute since it opened in 1976, through the annual Fuller-Keon Golf Tournament, which helped fund the institute’s Electrophysiology Laboratory.
After Tom’s death, Jeanne established the Jeanne Fuller Red Dress golf tournament, which was focused on women’s heart health.
“The family is just tremendous. Tom and Jeanne were very much interested in giving back to the community,” said Jim Orban, president and CEO of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation. Over the years, the Red Dress tournament has raised more than $1 million for the institute. Jeanne Fuller specialized in what Orban described as “personalized philanthropy.”
One of her last public appearances was at the 2015 tournament, he said.
“I’m sure she had to draw on a lot of strength and physical determination to be there. There were about 170 guests and it wasn’t in the script, but she made it known that she wanted to greet each of them individually and thank them each individually for their support for that tournament and for supporting women’s heart health.”
Jeanne Fuller was also patron of the Bytown Brigantine Tall Ship Sailing Foundation, a lifelong member of the Rideau Club, honorary life member of the Britannia Sailing Club and an early patron of the National Arts Centre Young Artist’s Program.
In addition to her children and step-children, Jeanne Fuller had 11 grandchildren and 11 more great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 29.
Donations to the Capt. & Mrs. T. G. Fuller Bursary Fund, through the Bytown Brigantine Foundation, can be made through tallshipsadventure.org.